As the health crisis in the United States worsens in the face of the current pandemic, non-essential businesses across the country have shut their doors in what medical experts say is an imperative measure to slow the spread of the virus.
In the face of this uncertainty, the stock market has fallen by thousands of points in just weeks. With market prosperity a vital talking point in favor of his reelection, President Donald Trump and his administration have signaled that he may call for a loosening of these restrictions.
Echoing a Fox News segment, the President tweeted on Sunday night that the "cure" for slowing the pandemic can't be "worse than the problem itself," implying that safety measures could be more deadly to Americans than the actual virus.
With 39,000 cases and growing in the United States, experts largely agree that the pandemic is going to get worse before it gets better, and that two weeks' worth of self quarantine measures aren't enough to significantly slow the virus.
Trump's own former homeland security advisor, Tom Bossert, is among those urging the President not to loosen restrictions to boost the markets.
Bossert tweeted that the current measures in place across the country were "imperative."
Bossert is far from the only one warning against the potential announcement by the Trump administration.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that he'd spoken with National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who's currently working with the Trump administration to curb the pandemic.
According to Graham, Fauci is against any measures meant to encourage Americans to go back to business as usual:
"I just spoke with Dr. Fauci — he believes that if anything we should be more aggressive and do more. … You can't have a functioning economy if you have hospitals overflowing. People aren't going to go to work like that."In an interview last week, Surgeon General Jerome Adams agreed:
"Fifteen days is likely not going to be enough to get us all the way through."
Others are speaking out against the move as well.
The willingness to relax these crucial measures signaled to many Americans that the Trump administration cares more about preserving the economy than potentially millions of American lives.
On Monday, deaths from the virus surpassed 100 in a single day for the first time.
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